Irony Among Us
by msu
Summary: Set at the end of Season 5, the epic final battle and the outcome. Spike's POV with a little gore.


Summary: Set end of Season 5, my take on the epic last battle scene in Spike's point of view. Sort of gory.

A/N: Been quite sometime since I've written fanfic. Found this the other day and decided to finish it up and post it. Hope there are still some readers out there. Please let me know what you think.

**Irony Among Us**

The rain had not let up one bit since the battle began which made it difficult at times to see where your opponent truly was. Wouldn't do to off someone from your own team, yeah? Between rain drops and slaughtering another victim, I searched through the assortment of brutes to find my grand-sire. A fat lot of good that did cause I couldn't bloody see anyone and suddenly I felt very alone.

Minutes ticked by wearily slow and my muscles began to burn from swinging the sword around pell-mell. Wasn't the time to be stealthy, just deliver the blows and move on to the next lot. Don't know how it happened, but suddenly Angel and I ended up fighting back to back. Blue was still no where in site and from outta nowhere Gunn popped up right beside us, blood still oozing slowly out of a gut wound he had suffered even before showing up in the alley. He laughed quite madly before yelling over the din of the battle.

"I can't believe this. I've wiped out loads of these animals. Just goes to show…"

The sudden interruption of Charlie's public statement gave me a start and I took a chance to glance over at him. Angel must have realized something was wrong because he too turned to look in Gunn's direction. I wasn't prepared to watch the unpleasantness that followed as a mightily pissed off ogre slammed his oafish sized hands together as if killing a bug. Angel and I were splattered with what were the remains of the top half of Charles Gunn. Bone, blood, brain matter and pieces of organ tissue slopped on the ground in a disgustingly abnormal sound but the worst was what flew towards us and landed on our faces. Angel roared a sound of despair and anger mingled together.

My reaction was instant; I ran at the thing, leapt the last bit, thrust my sword through the beast's gullet, twisted it and watched with a sense of satisfaction as the oversized goblin collapsed. The pleasure I felt from taking out the monster that decimated Charlie boy soon melted away as I turned to look at Angel. Angel, the supposed champion of champions, had dropped his weapon uselessly to the side and was now on all fours doing what, I couldn't quite figure out.

Before I could say anything, out of the corner of my eye I spied an approaching goon heading right at the great poofter and Angel, apparently oblivious to the raging battle we were still in the middle of, stood a great chance of losing a major body part. The ancient axe it was waving around meant only bad, bad stuff and the way Angel was positioned made it obvious it would not easily miss its intended target which would only be to sever the head from the vampire's body. Ask me if I give a damn if he were dusted.

I sprinted the short distance and bellowed a loud battle cry as I beheaded the monster racing towards my grandsire. Oh, balls! The rage in me spilled over as I turned and glared at Angel.

"Here, now, what in bloody hell's that all about?"

Didn't think he would answer; didn't even flinch at the tone of my voice so I stomped over to his great hulking form and kneed him in the side.

"Oy, you hurt?"

That's it, needed a bit of physical prodding. He slowly shifted back onto his legs into a squatting position and that's when I saw it. His face and the front of his jacket covered in Gunn gore and for the first time in a long time my stomach lurched as I retched. Swallowing tightly, I managed to keep from hurling the contents of my liquid dinner all over the alleyway. Didn't want to look like a prat now, yeah? I realized soon afterwards Angel had withdrawn from the real world, very much like Buffy did when Glory took Dawn. Damn! I quickly looked around to check on our rivals but I guess they were sorting things out among themselves. Thank the Powers That Be or whoever they were keeping the hell beasts entertained.

"C'mon Angel, we've got a job to finish." No response what-so-ever.

"C'mon, mate. Get it together." He sat there, staring straight ahead, not even blinking, not even acknowledging me or the beasties.

Finally, I slapped him on the shoulder hard, hard enough to make him falter sideways a bit.

I growled and I felt myself lose it, going over the edge of control as I heard snarls behind me getting ever closer. Really wasn't enjoying the notion of dying again. I noticed tears welling up and my voice did that annoying quivering thing. Bloody stupid emotions! I grabbed the lapels of Angel's jacket and shook him hard. "Snap out of it!"

Did I mention I shook him fiercely…incessantly? "Don't you dare give up now you stupid git. Don't you dare leave me here alone to do the job. I'll kill you myself if you don't get cracking."

I shoved him away from me hard, so hard he had to catch himself or fall over. "Fine, I don't need you, you infernal pillock."

I turned my back on him and surveyed mypredicament.

"Damn it all to hell, there's too many of them." I blatantly ignored the prat mumbling behind me until I heard him mutter something coherent. "I got it."

I whirled around in a huff and snapped, "What **are** you **on** about?"

Angel reached into his coat pocket and pulled out something shiny, a length of familiar chain dangling from his fisted hand. The amulet. The bloody piece of Elizabeth Taylor jewelry that was the second death of me and the third coming. Just bloody fantastic. I looked at the daft twit with sheer confusion and he actually smiled malevolently.

"No!" I shook my head slowly.

It all happened directly. He raised his hand into the air, palm up, the amulet flat on it, grabbed the front of my shirt to drag me forward with his free hand and shouted something in Latin that I'm sure, if I remember from school days gone by, loosely translated meant dissolve. The other, not so sure but I was about to find out.

"**Solvo inimicus!"**

"God, no!"

I recoiled slightly as the memories of the cavern back in Sunnydale came flashing back. I watched the pendant float up as a beam of too bright light shot out of it and mushroomed, engulfing us just as Angel jerked me down to the filthy alley floor and draped his arm protectively over me.

I yelled over the screams, "Son of a bitch. You stupid git, you've killed us all." And he laughed madly.

Deathly silence followed. I didn't want to look. Fear crept down into the depths of my soul and I didn't want to look, didn't want to know.

"What are the odds?" And Angel slapped me on the back.

Slowly I sat up and peered around the now deserted passage. The rain continued to beat down on us and suddenly I realized I was chilled from it. I heard Angel sigh dramatically which turned into a soft, yet vaguely hysterical chuckle. He had definitely lost it.

"I had this gut feeling, the amulet was used to destroy evil before. It was a Wolfram and Hart novelty, yet it was also used to bring back a champion. I started doing some research and I had it blessed by a witch. It was a 50/50 chance but I thought, what the hell?"

"Uh, yeah, thanks for asking for my say in this suicide mission, mate." I scowled as I stood up, grabbing the closest weapon to me which happened to be the axe from the last foe I slaughtered. Angel followed suit.

"Look, Spike, I'm damn proud of you. I know that doesn't mean anything coming from me. But, I've been hard on you for so many years, and I see now. You are truly a champion. An annoying pain in my ass one but still."

Touching. I actually felt fatherly vibes oozing from the ponce. I glared and he became stoic. I froze when he placed his hand at the side of my head, something a father, or in his case, grandfather, would do to their child. His features softened and the look in his eyes shifted to compassion.

"I **am **proud of you, Will."

And the nancy boy that I am, once again I felt my eyes burning as the tears welled up. So what is the first thing out of my mouth?

"I **do** love Buffy."

Silence and Angel with a quizzical look. Quite funny really.

"I know you do. I understand that. And I know she cares very much for you. You've touched her life. She told me so."

Now it was my turn to look perplexed with a tilt of my head. "Really? She said that…to you?"

"Well, not in so many words. Her actual phrasing I believe: 'He's in my heart.' And I understand now…you made a difference…she trusted you and believed in you. Just as I do…now."

"I…don't rightly know what to say."

He smirked. "Well, that's a first."

Smug bastard.

"Seriously, don't worry about having to say…"

I had to say something. "Thanks…for…well, for it all…Don't think I'll say it again. Sooo, what now?"

He turned to walk to the nearest exit, a darkened alcove off the alley. I trailed behind, axe resting over my shoulder. "Looks like we go office hunting. We still have to help the hopeless, right?"

"Yeah, there **is** that. We?"

We both stopped to turn and look at each other. "I didn't stutter. I very much said we. There's no one else left except you and me."

I looked to the end of the alley where the street ran perpendicular to it. "Yeah, just you and me. Ironic, innit?"

"Ironic, yeah. Sounds funny saying this, but you're the only one I trust to help run Angel Investigations."

"Oh so we're going back to that sorry excuse of a name? I rather like "Spike, Inc." Sounds more vicious, don't it? Like, grrrr, we'll get the job done no matter what?"

"Oh, yeah, that sounds great…not. We're not trying for brutal here, Spike."

"Do I get paid this time 'round?"

"Yeah, you'll get paid when AI gets paid."

I cocked my head and looked at the ground. "Well, that's something, right?"

"Yeah, yeah that's something." Angel's arm fell across my shoulders as we headed out of the battlefield, side by side, looking a bit worse for wear but with our heads held high because we knew that we had a purpose in this so called crazy and insane world in which we lived in. A purpose to be champions.

The End


End file.
